Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) has gained significant attention in recent decades as an effective approach to reduce health disparities and increase health equity. However, training in CBPR has remained fragmented by institution and limited in reach. San Francisco State University, in partnership with academic and community partners in Northern California, proposes to develop and implement a bi-annual week-long CBPR intensive Institute entitled: CBPR for Health Equity: Building Effective and Sustainable Partnerships to Improve Community Health, to be held initially in June, 2013, in San Francisco. Building a broad collaboration between public health graduate schools and programs, Clinical Translational Science Awards (CTSAs) in Northern California, Academic Health Centers, county health departments and community non-profit partners will create a sustainable regional CBPR training consortium for ongoing bi-annual CBPR institutes. The proposed Institute will address the need to build capacity to develop effective CBPR interventions that reduce health disparities and address the disproportionate burden of disease in diverse underserved populations in Northern California. The CBPR Institute will 1) develop an expanded sustainable Bay Area training consortium to build capacity of academic researchers, community members, and health practitioners to engage in effective CBPR to reduce health disparities; 2) implement a CBPR training Institute as the first collaborative effort that is envisioned as leading to bi-annual Northern California training institutes co-sponsored by our institutional academic partners; and 3) produce two major training products as part of the sustainability plan: a comprehensive facilitator's guide for future Institutes; and multi-media CBPR training modules that can be used in multiple venues over time to help build capacity to impact health disparities in the region. This CBPR Institute will help to increase the opportunitie for new and senior investigators, including those from underserved communities, to engage in CBPR to reduce health disparities. Our proposal for a Northern California model, which starts from the needs of diverse populations, will serve not only to reduce health disparities in the region but also to be a model for other multi-institutional training partnerships across the nation PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Training in CBPR is critical to building the capacity of academics, health professionals and community members, including those from underserved communities, to reduce health disparities and increase health equity. San Francisco State University, in partnership with community and academic partners from across Northern California, proposes to create a sustainable, regional CBPR training consortium that will host an initial CBPR intensive Institute in June, 2013, in San Francisco, with plans for an ongoing bi-annual Institute. This collaborative multi-partnered training model will help to increase capacity to reduce health disparities in the Bay Area, Central Valley, and Northern California, as well as provide a training model for other regions in California and the country.